By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Army AI – Gateway
It is often said that an AI-system is only as effective as its database, and seemingly limitless amounts of data can only be useful if it is organized, analyzed, accessed to the extent as needed, scaled as necessary and quickly filtered to identify or isolate information of greatest relevance.
AI can now do this in milliseconds, and hours or even days of drone video ISR data can be analyzed and filtered to pinpoint moments of greatest relevance for commanders making fast-paced combat decisions. What happens when incoming pools of information to be analyzed arrive through different transport layer technologies? For instance, perhaps some critical data arrives by satellite through GPS, other information through an RF signal or data link and a third through some kind of optical or wireless communications technology? How can these disparate technological formats be pooled, organized, integrated and analyzed in relation to one another.
This is where crucial “gateways” arrive as they are filters or translators essentially able to integrate otherwise incompatible technical data formats.
“With data coming in from multiple sources in multiple formats, the quick win is to have translators to take that data and translate it to another format that is useable for whatever application you are operating in,” William Nelson, Deputy, Army Futures Command, recently told Warrior in an interview.
The Army is taking measures to fully empower and network the future force through a dispersed, integrated series of “meshed” nodes, multi-domain force and series of “gateway” technologies designed to connect different transport layer formats to one another.
The concept is to accumulate, gather and organize otherwise disparate pools of incoming sensor data and connect them to one another in real time. Perhaps an RF signal is bringing in communications data, while a GPS receiver is tracking detail provided from satellites and computer networks are using common IP protocol standards to exchange data? This is precisely the kind of scenario for which the Army is developing “gateway” technology systems able to essentially “translate” data arriving in different formats and technical configurations to organize, distill and analyze information streams in relation to one another in real time.
Rainmaker
One such “gateway” oriented AI-program now being fast-tracked by the Army is called Rainmaker, a technology aimed at integrating sensor data through a specific “architecture” designed to break down barriers and enable interoperability and data sharing through a common technical configuration. Rainmaker, which integrates sensor data, is aligned with an AI-enabled system called Firestorm which pairs sensor and targeting specifics with shooters or weapons systems.
“We have certainly launched out with innovation funds on an AI program called Rainmaker, and it is getting after integrated sensors, and we have launched out already on an acceleration effort with Firestorm, which is linking shooters. This combination of the two, allows us to put the entire architecture together that needs to be there to fully sense and fully engage,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Todd, Former Chief Innovation Officer, Army Futures Command, told Warrior in an interview in 2022.
While breakthroughs have been taking place for the last several years, the Army is still quick to refer to its ongoing Project Convergence experiments as a “campaign of learning” exercise wherein weapons developers discover the realm of the possible refine requirements and test the limits of operational use for promising new systems.
“Rainmaker is essentially a reference architecture for us to build off of, and continue to evolve off. If we needed an AI architecture for sensors, that’s it, we’ve chosen it. We’ve said that’s what we’re going to use to not only demonstrate research, discover and evolve, but also protect our data. “This whole idea of protection of data is huge. Data is almost everything to us on the future battlefield. Right. It is our eyes and ears. It helps us make decisions. It helps us with targeting and helps us with patient care. It helps us with all kinds of things and so in the sensor arena for us, Rainmaker becomes how we talk to industry, how we talk to researchers, how we operationalize. And so we have a common foundation to work off of,” Todd said.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
